This invention relates in general to sheet piling walls, and, in particular, to a sheet piling supported aesthetically pleasing modular wall system.
It is highly efficient and cost-effective to use vertical sheet piling in order to retain a bank of land, in particular a bank of land next to an excavation or adjacent a body of water. Sheet piling is also used in and around harbors and canals for establishing bulkheads against the water. Sheet piling may also be used in highway construction for stabilizing an embankment adjacent the highway. One drawback of sheet pile construction is its appearance that is unpleasant and otherwise unattractive. Sheet piling is made of steel and it usually rusts. Even if it is treated with a coating or painted, such treatment requires periodic and expensive maintenance.
Sheet piling walls have replaced older types of construction that included masonry walls with large stone and/or precast concrete blocks. Construction of such masonry walls is very expensive and time-consuming. In order to construct the wall, a temporary sheet pile wall is driven in order to retain the adjacent water or soil. Then the area behind the temporary sheet pile wall is excavated and the masonry wall is installed. The excavation behind the masonry wall is backfilled and the temporary sheet piling wall is removed. While such walls are attractive, they are often prohibitively expensive.
Today many harbors and other waterways including canals, such as the famous Erie Canal are being re-developed for commercial and recreational purposes. As such, there is a demand for construction techniques that will create more aesthetically pleasing environments for these reconstructed harbors and canals. As such, there has developed a long-felt and unfulfilled need for a cost-effective, aesthetically-pleasing wall.